Sponsored by The Tire Rack

[BozoBlaster]

'07 335i e92 automatic transmission. I am hearing and feeling (in seat,not steering wheel, very faint though) a shuddering sound like I'm driving over the intermittent rumble strips in between lanes, not the solid strips in the emergency lane, at about 55+mph at low rpms when cruising, can't tell of it happens under load because previous owner put in upgraded exhaust system so during acceleration its too loud to tell if sound is still persisting, want to try to narrow down what it could possible be, looking into it, seems like it's leaning towards torque converter shudder but I want to try to be open to everything else, the TC shudder symptoms occur for others mainly it seems at lower speeds and when under load so I'm not wanting to point my finger yet and say "thats it!". Only owned the car for a few weeks now and when I bought it the dealer had the wheels aligned and balanced, I'm hoping that it just wasn't balanced properly and needs to be done the correct way. Or if it is TC shudder then adding the lubegard additive should hopefully fix. Just want to try and confirm what the issue is before I start throwing money at problems that aren't actually problems. Appreciate any and all feedback! Thanks!!

[leathers]

Definitely gets the wheels rebalanced to at least eliminate that. I've had this issue with my E90 before - had to get the more experienced guy at the tire store to do the balancing. You could have slightly bent rim or two also.

[BozoBlaster]

Originally Posted by leathers

Definitely gets the wheels rebalanced to at least eliminate that. I've had this issue with my E90 before - had to get the more experienced guy at the tire store to do the balancing. You could have slightly bent rim or two also.

Thank you for your reply and input! I do have aftermarket aluminum 5-spoke wheels with pretty big spaces between each spoke, I wouldn't doubt the previous owner hit a pot hole and bent one of the wheels slightly. I'll have to do a road force alignment instead of the typical alignment and hopefully that will tell me if its wheels or not. It has seemed like its been getting slightly worse too.

[timnkoo]

Getting the same thing. Did you resolve your issue?

[BozoBlaster]

Have not done anything yet, haven't driven the car much and try not to put my foot down ( its so hard not to ) but it still seems to be getting slightly worse. I'm 99%sure its the transmission, not 100% but its more of an intermittent " brr-brr-brr-brr" sound rather than just a constant " brrrrrrrrrr" sound making me thing its something to do with a certain spot in the gearing?

[BozoBlaster]

Did a transmission fluid and pan/filter change, seems better but after driving it a few times I don't think it's going my away completely.. Really hoping it's not the TC!!! Is it possible to remove TC out of of transmission and have it rebuilt if I drop the engine and transmission or is it not worth spending the time and look into replacing the transmission, also if a replacement is what's more necessary, are there any upgraded versions of the DCT e92 transmission? Or just another stock one that will only last a certain amount of miles, I'm running FBO (vrsf charge pipe w/hks blow off valve, vrsf 7.5" stepped front mount intercooler, vrsf turbo outlets, vrsf silicone inlets, vrsf dual cone intake filters, vrsf catless downpipes, 3" catted muffler delete exhaust, all with a stage 2+ MHD 91 octane tune) and will be abusing the transmission so if there are options for a transmission that will handle better power I would love to know.

[BozoBlaster]

I have narrowed it down to start at about 60 miles an hour in 5th gear, with low load, below 3.5k-3k rpm, cruising. It's hard to hear it with the drone of my exhaust and with the catless DPs it's even louder but you can sure feel the "brr-brr-brr-brr-brr-brr", consistent and even but gets faster as I accelerate.

[BozoBlaster]

Problem hasn't been resolved but hasn't gotten worse either, I'm assuming at this point that it has to be a wheel as stated before, but I'm in the process now of procuring the parts and nessecary maintenance for converting to single turbo so I'm not in the market yet for new wheels, waiting til I'm finished with my current project so I can get smaller wheels (previous owner had 19" wheels put on) to be able to fit some slicks. Hopfully then the problem will be resolved. In the mean time though I have developed an issue from 3rd to 4th gears, only when the transmission oil isn't up to temp yet (anywhere below 180-190) I have a lag shifting from 3rd to 4th only during a pull feeling like a cut in power and it doesn't shift up to 4th even though the dash displays 4th (xhp transmission flash) until I let off the throttle a bit or completely, then I can feel the upshift, so either a solenoid issue or just not warm enough tyranny fluid? Other than that the transmission has seemed to be taking the abuse and asking for more so I would love to hear another opinion.

[whyzee125]

Get a road force balance on your wheels. In Tennessee, you can go to 20 tire shops in a row and every single one will leave you with poorly balanced wheels, it's insane. All this to say, bad tire balances are common. So are bent wheels, especially with aftermarket ones.

A good road force balance will show you if a wheel or tire is out of round. This chassis is pretty sensitive to irregularities there.

Does downshifting at the same speed and throttle input change it?

It could be a slight misfire, like what my car did with bad carbon buildup.

TQ is cerainly possible but I don't think that's common on these--I've never heard of it before.

[BozoBlaster]

I haven't noticed the issue from downshifting, unless maybe I tried downshifting immediately after having the upshift issue in which case it just wouldn't downshifting because its still trying to input the upshift and the engine and transmission hadn't had ample time to be able to slow the rpms down to then upshift itself after it decides it can. I did that the first couple times it happened because it scared me a bit. Other than that its just an upshift problem and only between those gears. I've already done a manual valve cleaning with just the intake manifold off through the valve ports with brushes, picks, and carb cleaner. As far as misfires go, wouldn't that throw an immediate code? I've got a stage 2+ MHD tune for the ECU and take advantage of the gauge monitoring so I always drive with my tablet mounted in front of the navi with more gauge displays and if I have issues I check the fault codes regularly and have never had any misfire codes, the very first time I had the shift issue it went into limp mode and I had the corresponding fault code for that, but clearing the code made it drive normal again. I also have the xhp TCU tune which I wonder if it makes it more likely to happen since the transmission is able to shift quicker especially under heavy load. I'm going to look into solenoid repair and see what I can do there for the time being.